I've been meaning to give props to Tracy Bravoldt and the crew at Whispering Turbines. They do a lot of work on turbines, including prepping the Elam team's engines for 2007 which won the Gold Cup and the National Championship.

Photo at right: Two of the engines used by Erick Ellstrom's Elam team in 2007.

There's been increasing "buzz" lately about changes to the run-up to start. The talk revolves around making drivers stay on plane longer and also having to maintain higher minimum speeds before the start.

Don't know if it's just talk or if there are changes in store for 2008. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

Here's what I like about people that read this blog. I asked about a boat that ran ashore at Firebird in the 90's... and this photo showed up in my email. It's the Miss T-Plus in 1995 and it broke a skid fin during a practice run. The boat and driver were OK.

Anybody who was there want to fill in those of us that weren't about what happened here?